We were lucky to catch up with Jesse Strauss recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

Our goal at Forward Frame Media is to create video content that aids progressive causes. To do that, you have to tell stories, and some of the most compelling stories come from the activists and individuals most impacted by the causes we are championing.

Often we don’t have the production budget to send film crews all around the country gathering these stories. So years before the pandemic we started conducting remote video interviews using software that recorded Skype calls. We discovered that despite the picture quality not being as good as an actual in person interview, the content we created felt more organic and authentic and connected with online audiences.

So once the pandemic hit, we were well practiced at remote interviews, knew how to package them in ads and for social media, and ready to keep producing content. Those years were understandably extremely tough for video production companies both because of the lack of in person film shoots and because of the challenges of remote work when handling such large video files.

Because of our pre-pandemic experience in this realm we were able to easily adapt, create compelling content that performed even better than ads that felt more highly produced, and find success during those times.

Jesse, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I was a kid, I loved movies. I knew as young as middle school that I wanted to be involved in video production. But as I got older I also developed an interest in politics. Inspired by Obama’s election in 2008, I decided to go to college in Washington, DC, at American University, where I could both study film and be closer to the political world. During my junior year, I interned for GMMB and got to work on some early Obama 2012 election campaign ads. I loved it. Working on video production and the feeling that I could make a small difference in this campaign filled me with pride.

After getting my film degree, I decided to stay at American to pursue a master’s in Political Communication. I was determined to forge a career that allowed me to produce videos that had an impact on progressive causes and campaigns.

After graduating I put myself out there as a freelancer for local nonprofits and likeminded organizations. My freelance work started to grow and grow until in 2016 it made sense to form a production company, and thus Forward Frame Media was born.

Since then we have produced hundreds of videos for political campaigns, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations championing progressive causes that are near and dear to my heart. We work in races as local as city council and as national as the presidential campaign. The nonprofits and charities we work with are both big and small. Our mission is to generate as much positive change as we possibly can.

Over the course of my career there are three major successes that I am most proud of. The first is that in 2020 we turned a Biden climate change speech into a very simple spot for MoveOn. That ad ended up being MoveOn’s highest tested ad in the entire election. The ad performed particularly well with young people who tend to be most concerned about climate change who said it directly motivated them to vote.

In Baltimore, a man named Keith Davis Jr. was falsely accused of murder, and tried five times by a vindictive prosecutor. Working with Campaign Zero, we used real courtroom audio to create video content that poked holes in the prosecution and showed the absurd lengths they were going through to keep an innocent man in prison. These videos helped oust the prosecutor and ultimately secure the release of Keith Davis Jr. who is now home with his family.

One of my earliest clients was an extremely creative and talented political consultant named Frank Chi. Frank is now a filmmaker, and inspired by the Stop Asian Hate movement, wanted to direct a documentary about one of his heroes who shattered many harmful asian stereotypes, Jeremy Lin. Frank brought me on to edit the project. Over the course of my career there are two major successes that I am most proud of. I could not be prouder of Frank, this work, and the film’s success.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We are a video production businesses and I would like to think of ourselves as creating stellar and well produced, content. But beyond that, what I really think keeps clients coming back is that we pride ourselves on being extremely communicative, easy to reach, and delivering exactly what the client asked for, on deadline. Reliability is what is most important in the fast world of political ad making and that is what we do best.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Just be open, honest, communicative, and treat your team with respect. Try to be as flexible as you can to accommodate their needs and they will reward you with loyalty and good work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://forwardframemedia.com
• Instagram: jessems42
• Linkedin: jessems
• Twitter: jessems42
• Other: https://vimeo.com/jessestrauss